Poll: Ohio reverses on gay marriage

Politico.com – March 25, 2013

Ohioans have switched sides on the same-sex marriage debate, nine years after banning gay and lesbian nuptials, according to a new survey.

A Saperstein poll, released Sunday, showed that 54 percent of Ohioans now support a new amendment, which would repeal the state’s 2004 measure banning gay marriage and “allow two consenting adults to marry, regardless of their gender,” The Columbus Dispatch reported.

Only 40 percent oppose the new proposal, which, according to the newspaper, would allow religious institutions freedom to choose whether they’ll marry certain couples and protect them should they refuse to preform the marriages.

The state’s “coming out” in support of same-sex marriage follows news that one of the Buckeye State’s senators also had a change of heart. Republican Sen. Rob Portman, who co-sponsored the Defense of Marriage Act, changed his views after learning that one of his sons is gay. The poll was conducted a week before Portman’s op-ed was published.

These shifts come just days before Supreme Court justices will discuss the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8, which bans gay marriage in the state, and on Wednesday they will hear arguments on the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, which considers a similar issue on a federal level.

The poll was conducted by Saperstein Associates, which surveyed 1,003 Ohio adults from March 5-10. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.